Eddie Redmayne was filmmakers’ first choice for Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them

Eddie Redmayne was the first choice for filmmakers in the role of Newt Scamander in the Fantastic Beasts movies.

Eddie Redmayne was the first choice for filmmakers in the role of Newt Scamander in the Fantastic Beasts movies.

Actor Eddie Redmayne was the first choice for filmmakers in the role of Newt Scamander in the Fantastic Beasts movies. Director David Yates said no one else was even considered for the role of the 1920s ‘magizoologist’, reported Contactmusic.

“Eddie is quintessentially British, and an actor for all times, who can play a character from any time,” the “Harry Potter” filmmaker said.

“Eddie is brilliant at getting under a character’s skin and exploring every detail of a role, yet all that effort is invisible. All you see here is Newt, an outsider who is somewhat knotty but winning and engaging, someone you immediately invest in.”

Eddie Redmayne had to lock his Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them script in a safe. The 34-year-old, who stars as magizoologist Newt Scamander in the fantasy film, says he occasionally defied the team’s orders to keep the script under lock and key and smuggled it home with him, reports variety.com.

“I never ever have done a film where you have to literally lock up the script in a safe. First, you’re not really allowed a paper script. I was like, ‘I need a script to write notes on it’,” Redmayne said.

Asked if he could take the script home with him from time to time, he added,”Not really. Occasionally, I would smuggle my script home.”

Redmayne, who has five-month-old daughter Iris with his wife Hannah Bagshawe, also found out about the role in a “wonderfully top-secret way”.